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The Early Middle Ages

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The Early Middle Ages CHAPTER 7 The Early Middle Ages i' CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE . The crowning of Charlemagne by the pope implied that the emperor had a spiritua l responsibility to spread and defend the fait h. (Scala/Art Resource, N. Y.) he establishment of Germanic kingdoms in the fifth and sixth centuries on Roman lands marked the end of the ancient world T and the start of the Middle Ages, a period that spanned a thou­ sand years. During the Middle Ages the center of Western civilization shifted northward from the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea to parts of Europe that Greco-Roman civilization had barely penetrated. The Early Middle Ages (500-1050) marked an age of transition. The humanist culture that characterized the Greco-Roman past had disinte­ grated, and a new civilization was emerging in Latin Christendom, which covered western and central Europe. Medieval civilization con­ sisted of a blending of the remnants of Greco-Roman culture with Germanic customs and Christian principles. The central element was Christianity; the Christian view of a transcendent God and the quest for salvation pervaded the medieval outlook, and the church was the dom­ inant institution. During the Early Middle Ages, Latin Christendom was a pioneer soci­ ety struggling to overcome invasions, a breakdown ofcentral authority, a decline in trade and town life, and a deterioration of highly refined culture. The Latin Christian church, centered in Rome and headed by the pope, progressively gave form and unity to the new civilization. Christian clergy preserved some of the learning of the ancient world, which they incorporated into the Christian outlook. Dedicated mission­ aries converted various Germanic, Celtic, and Slavic peoples to Latin Christianity. From Italy to the North Sea and from Ireland to Poland, an emerging Christian tradition was providing unity to people with differ­ ing cultural traditions. The center ofemerging medieval civilization was the kingdom of the Franks, located in Gaul (France) and western Germany. Migrating west­ ward from their homeland in the valley of the Rhine River, the Ger­ manic Franks conquered Roman Gaul in the fifth and sixth centuries. Charlemagne (768-814), the greatest of the Frankish rulers, added large areas of Germany and Italy to his kingdom. On Christmas Day in the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans, a sign that the memory of Imperial Rome still persisted. Without Roman law, a professional civil service, and great cities serving as centers of trade, however, Charlemagne's empire was only a pale shadow of the Roman Empire. Rather, the crowning of a German king as emperor of the Romans by the pope signified something new: the intermingling of Germanic, Christian, and Roman elements that came to characterize medieval Latin Christendom. Charlemagne's empire rested more on the strength of the emperor's personality than it did on viable institutions. Charlemagne's heirs were unable to hold the empire together; power passed gradually into the hands of large landholders, who exercised governmental authority in their own regions. Also contributing to this decline in centralized au­ thority were devastating raids by Muslims from Spain, North Africa, 192 !P ,;', ; , Chapter 7 Th e Early Middle A ges 193 and Mediterranean islands; Northmen from Scandinavia; and Magyars from western Asia. Europe had entered an age of feudalism, in which public authority was dispersed among lords and held as if it were pri­ vate inheritable property. Feudalism rested on an economic base known as manorialism. Al­ though familyfarms owned by free peasants still existed, the essential agri­ cultural arrangement in medieval society was the village community (manor), headed by a lord or his steward and farmed by serfs, who were bound to the land. A .lord controlled at least one manorial village; great lords might possess scores. Much land was held by various clerical institu­ tions; the church's manors were similar to those run by nonclerics. Feudalism was an improvised response to the challenge posed by in­ effectual central authority, and it provided some order and law during a period of breakdown. Medieval feudal practices were not uniform but differed from region to region. In later centuries, when kings reasserted their authority and fashioned strong central governments, the power of lords declined. Latin Christendom (western and central Europe) was only one of three new civilizations based on religion that emerged after the decline ofthe Roman Empire; Byzantium and Islam were.the other two. During the Early Middle Ages both of these eastern civilizations were far more advanced than Latin Christendom. And yet it was Latin Christendom, not Byzantine or Islamic civilizations, that eventually produced the modern world. 1 The Byzantine Cultural Achievement ~ During the Early Middle Ages, when learning was in retreat in Latin Christendom, Byzantine civilization preserved the intellectual tradition of ancient Greece. Al­ though the Roman Empire in the West fell to the German tribes, the eastern provinces of the Empire survived. They did so because they were richer, more ur­ banized, and more pOlJulous and because the main thrust of the Germanic and Hunnish invaders had been directed at the western regions. In the eastern parts, Byzantine civilization took shape. Its religion was Christianity, its culture Greek, and its machinery ofadministration Roman. Contacts with Byzantine learning dur­ ing the High Middle Ages stimulated learning in the Latin West. Theophylact Simocattes THE VALUE OF REASON AND HISTORY In the following selection Theophylact Simocattes, a seventh-century Byzantine historian, shows respect for the tradition of reason that was inherited from the 194 Part Two The Middle Ages classical world and familiarity with Homer, the wellspring of Greek literature. Like Thucydides, he values history, considering it a far better avenue to knowl­ edge than the myths and fables created or embellished by poets. Man is adorned not only by the endowments of his adventures. His recital pleased the Pho­ nature but also by the fruits of his own efforts. For caeans so much that the banquet seemed to have reason, which he possesses,is an admirable and di­ changed into a theater. Indeed, they lent him an vine trait by which he renders to God his adora­ attention altogether remarkable, nor did they tion and homage. Through reason he enters into feel during his long narration any tedium, al­ knowledge of himself and does not remain igno­ though he described the many misfortunes he rant of the ordering of his creation . Accordingly, had suffered . For listening brings an over­ through reason II;len come together with each whelming desire (to hear more) and thus easily other and, turning away from external considera­ accepts a strange tale. tions , they direct their thoughts toward the mys­ It is for this reason that in learning the poets tery of their own nature. are considered most estimable, for they realize Reason has given many good things to men that the spirits of men are fond of stories, always and is an excellent helpmate of nature. The yearning to acquire knowledge and thirsty for . things which nature has withheld from man, strange narrations. Thus the poets create myths reason provides in the most effective manner, for men and clothe their phrases with adorn­ embellishing those things which are seen, ments, fleshing out the fables with method, and adding spice to those that are tasted, roughen­ embellishing their nonsense with meter as if ing or softening things to the touch, compos­ with enchanted spells. This artifice has suc­ ing poetry and music for the ear, soothing the ceeded so well that poets are considered to be the­ soul by lessening discord, and bringing sounds ologians, intimately associated with the gods. It into concord. Is not reason also the most per­ is believed that through the poets' mouths the suasive master of the crafts?-reason which has gods reveal their own personal affairs and also made a well-woven tunic from wool, which whether a felicitous or a calamitous event will from wood has constructed carts for farmers, happen to men in their lifetime. oars for sailors, and small wicker shields for This being so, one may term history the soldiers as protection against the dangers of the common teacher of all men: it shows which battlefield. course to follow and which to avoid as profitless. Most important of all, reason provides the The most competent generals are those who hearer with that pleasure which reflects the have been instructed by history, for history reveals greatest amount of experience, the study of his­ how to draw up troops and by what means to tory, which is the instructor of the spirit. Noth­ outmaneuver the enemy through ambush. His­ ing can be more seductive than history for the tory renders these generals more prudent be­ minds of those who desire to learn. It is suffi­ cause they know about the misfortunes of cient to cite an example from Homer to demon­ others, and it directs them through observation strate this: Soon after he had been thrown on the ofthe mistakes ofothers. Similarly, it has shown beach by violent waves of the sea, the son of that men become happier through good con­ Laertes, Odysseus, almost naked and with his duct, pushing men to higher peaks of virtue body emaciated from the mishap of the ship­ through gradual advances. For the old man his­ wreck, was graciously received at the court of tory is his support and staff, while for the Alcinous. There he was clothed in a bright robe young, it is the fairest and wisest instructor, ap­ and given a place at the table of the king. Al­ plying (the fruit of) great experience to new sit­ though only just arrived, he was granted per­ uations and thus anticipating somewhat the mission to speak and an opportunity to relate lessons of time.
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